: Hey Folks

: Getting close to R2K1 and getting equally close to getting this Walrus
: finished up.

: Looking for some ideas on how to put loops in the end of the Yak for handles
: and/or hold-downs for the car top ride to Washington. ( From Fresno,
: Calif. )

: Two ideas I had were to drill and fill hole with epoxy, down into the bow and
: stern stems and then redrill and run a screw/eye down into them. Would
: work for the car top hold-down, but would be a bit small for a hand hold.

I'd vote for this idea -- and then you can create your handhold by running a loop of tubular webbing or nylon line through the screw eye.....1 inch tubular webbing is comfortable to hold.... or make a wooden toggle. I made some wooden toggles by taking a Very Large (1 inch? it was the biggest I could find at the hardware store) diameter wooden dowel, cutting it to hand-width & rounding off the edges and drilling a hole through the middle--the "short way", and then coating it with epoxy, and threading the nylon line through the toggle and tying it off at the hole-in-the-boat (in your case, the screw eye, in my case, a hole drilled through the end pour.) They're comfortable-- I've got toggles on one boat and tubular webbing on the other, and both solutions are easy on the hand. I got multiple toggles from one dowel.

I've done the lift-&-carry with both of these and in neither case did I have that uncomfortable "the rope is cutting into my hand, I've gotta set my end down NOW" feeling." Flat webbing is not comfortable, tubular webbing is.

Julie Kanarr